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Get GarageBand free for iOS, says Apple leak

Ahead of a big iPad announcement tomorrow, Apple accidentally revealed plans to make GarageBand for iOS a free app.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm
2 min read

One, two, a-one-two-three-four! Apple is set to free the music -- by making GarageBand free for iOS. Ahead of a big iPad announcement tomorrow, Apple accidentally revealed its plans for the music-making software.

Apple inadvertently revealed the plan to add GarageBand to the line-up of software that comes free with the iPhone 5S, but has since yanked the list. Too late though! The slip, spotted by MacRumours, suggests GarageBand will become a free app with more options to buy extra bits and bobs such as new instruments and sounds as in-app purchases.

GarageBand currently costs £10.49 for Mac computers or £2.99 for iPhone and iPad. You can buy add-ons such as video clips of celebrities like Sting, Norah Jones, Ben Folds, Alex Lifeson and Patrick Stump teaching you to play guitar or piano.

In keeping with the redesigned, colourful aesthetic of Apple's latest software iOS 7, iLife and iWork apps have new icons. Word processing app Pages, spreadsheet app Numbers and presentation app Keynote -- also free for iPhone and iPad -- get new icons too. GarageBand's new 80s-tastic gradient-coloured icon features a simplified version of the Gibson ES 335 guitar that adorns the software's logo.

GarageBand is a popular simple music creation and recording program, famous for spawning among other things the Vintage Funk Kit 03 drum loop in Rihanna's megasmash 'Umbrella', and used by everyone from Fall Out Boy and T Pain to Noel Gallagher and Erasure. Not all together, I'd imagine, but you never know what these rock stars get up to.

Apple reveals all at 6pm tomorrow. We're live from the announcement, so keep it CNET for the first news, previews, videos, and hands-on first impressions.

Watch this: Apple iPhone 5S

Are you a keen GarageBand user? What do you think of Apple's own-brand apps? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or sing us a song in our Facebook garage.